In Germany the traditional Christmas dinner consists of a roast goose served with braised red cabbage, dried prunes, apples and chestnut.

Recipe for 4-6 people:

5kg female goose, trimmed

1 red cabbage

1 cup red wine vinegar

6 apples

1 tin of chestnuts

100g goose fat

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 raisins

2 cloves

5 black peppercorn

100g dried prunes

1 tablespoons grey sea salt

1/2 cinnamon stick

1 bay leaf

The day before, shred the red cabbage, put it in a cast iron pot with the goose fat, Brown sugar, peppercorn, cloves, cinnamon, red wine vinegar, raisins, two apples (peeled, cored and sliced) and sea salt. Mix well and leave over night.

Get your goose oven ready and roast it for 20 minutes and 15 minutes per kilos. Half way the cooking time add 4 apples, peeled, cored and cut in four, the prunes and the chestnut around the goose in the roasting tray.

Meanwhile, put the pot of red cabbage on a medium heat to cook for 2h30.

Serve the goose on a tray with the apples, prunes and chestnuts around it. Serve the cabbage on the side.

Frank Krawczyk smoked meat productsBased in Dereenatra, Schull West Cork Frank offers some of the finest smoked meat on the Island. From handmade salamis to pancetta and chorizo. Worth the try.Find him at:- Dereenatra, Schull West Cork- frankk@oceanfree.net- Farmer's markets in Cork and Kerry.

Ballyshiel Milk toffeeTommy Corrigan and his Argentinian wife Karina Gaetani have launched this small milk toffee about 7 years ago, following a traditional Argentinian recipe. For me they make a healthy, natural and very different spreads, dessert sauces or ice-cream flavouring.Find them at:- Kilcrutin business park, Tullamore Co Offaly- ballyshiel@eircom.net- 090 645 4776/ 087 270 1472.

The Organic SupermarketThis is a brand new food store that has just opened about a month ago, on main street Blackrock, Co Dublin. To my knowledge, it is the only shop that offers 100% organic products (and fair trade for most of them!), that is not an health store, in Dublin. Good choice of food and wines and the choice is still widening.Find it at:- The Organic Supermarket, 2c Main Street, Blackrock, Co Dublin, open seven days a week.- 01 2781111.- www.organicsupermarket.ie